Ronald D. Moore commented: "My working assumption was that the Enterprise-E had her keel laid sometime during TNG's last season and was probably going to be given another name. When the Enterprise-D was destroyed, that Sovereign-class ship was nearing completion and was then christened Enterprise." (AOL chat,1998)

In service

After a year-long shakedown, the Enterprise-E was ordered to the Romulan Neutral Zone during the second Borg incursion. Starfleet was officially concerned about possible Romulan military action since many of the available ships had been diverted to fight the Borg, but in reality, Starfleet was worried about Picard's presence at the battle.

A three man team led by Captain Picard stopped the beacon from being completed by separating the deflector from the ship by disengaging the magnetic locks and then destroying it. Picard eventually realized that the fight was a lost cause, and ordered the evacuation of the ship and an auto-destruct to prevent the Borg from interfering with the Phoenix flight.

He eventually confronted the Borg Queen in main engineering, only to find, to his horror, that the Borg had "assimilated" CommanderData, who aborted the auto-destruct and used three quantum torpedoes to destroy the Phoenix - as Picard begged him not to, the android walked right past his captain as if he wasn't there. However, he had in fact deceived, not joined, the Borg; the torpedoes missed their "target", and Data, mockingly repeating the Borg mantra, used the contents of a ruptured plasma coolant tank (the Queen had been too busy taunting Picard to see him approach it) to liquefy the organic components of the Borg, destroying their temporary collective.

Seven of Nine made at least two references to the Enterprise and Borg involvement with Cochrane's flight in VOY: "Relativity" and in VOY: "Year of Hell" when she stated "The Borg were present during those events". The incident in "Relativity" was described as an example of a Pogo paradox.

The Son'a (actually vengeful former Ba'ku, exiled from the planet after a failed coup a century prior) planned to harvest metaphasic radiation from the planet's ring system, and needed Starfleet cooperation to carry out the plan. Captain Picard felt the relocation of the Ba'ku was a severe violation of the Prime Directive and resigned his commission, leading a team of Enterprise crewmembers to the Ba'ku planet to prevent their capture and removal.

The Enterprise being pursued by a subspace tear in the Briar Patch

Commander William T. Riker was instructed to take the Enterprise and contact the Federation Council to alert them to the realities of the situation. It was a treacherous journey, since the Briar Patch interfered with external communications as well as the ship's impulse drive.

Riker was able to outsmart the Son'a by collecting metreon gas native to the Briar Patch then venting it behind the ship. When the Son'a used their weapons, the gas exploded, destroying one ship and severely damaging the other. This became known as the Riker Maneuver.

Riker convinced the Federation Council to reconsider the plan for the Ba'ku and Captain Picard was reinstated as the ship's commander. (Star Trek: Insurrection)

Sometime between 2375 and 2379 the Enterprise underwent a major refit. Four additional aft-facing photon torpedo tubes were added, along with one more forward-facing tube: a twin launcher aft of the bridge, a single launcher above the aft hangar deck, and a single launcher at the forward base of the bridge terracing. The bridge was refitted with handrails and the consoles were improved across the port and starboard walls with more detailed displays. Additionally, new nacelle pylons were fitted at that time, slightly longer, broader and more sharply swept than the originals, and fitted with four additional phaser arrays.

The Enterprise-E in 2379

In 2379, the Enterprise returned to Earth for the wedding of William T. Riker and Deanna Troi. She departed for Betazed, where another ceremony, a traditional Betazoid wedding, was scheduled.

While en route, the ship detected unusual positronic signals from the Kolarin system, discovering another Soong-type android, the prototype B-4. Shortly following, the Enterprise was ordered to Romulus for a meeting with the new Praetor, Shinzon, who wanted to initiate peace talks. Both the discovery of B-4 and the peace overtures turned out to be a ruse to capture Captain Picard and discover tactical positions of Starfleet vessels.

Enterprise faces and collides with the Scimitar

Once it became clear Shinzon was going to use his starship, the Scimitar, to destroy all life on Earth and wage war on the Federation, the Enterprise was to join Star Fleet Battle Group Omega and make a stand against Shinzon. Shinzon caught up to the Enterprise in the Bassen Rift, and in the ensuing confrontation, the vessel was severely damaged, including a major hull breach on the bridge, destroying the viewscreen and controls and disabling the warp core.

As a last resort, Picard ordered the Enterprise to ram the Scimitar, causing the destruction of much of the saucer section's forward area. The collision disabled the Scimitar, but Shinzon, driven by vengeance, activated his deadly thalaron weapon and trained it on the Enterprise.

The weapon was overloaded and the Scimitar was destroyed due to interference from Commander Data, who sacrificed himself to save the Enterprise, Picard, and, indirectly, Earth.

Enterprise in drydock over Earth

Following the Scimitar incident, the Enterprise returned to Earth where it underwent an extensive refit in one of the orbiting spacedocks for several weeks. (Star Trek Nemesis)

A cut scene from the script for Star Trek Nemesis revealed that it was the starship USS Hemingway that towed the critically damaged Enterprise-E to Earth.

According to the Star Trek Nemesis script and a deleted scene, the Enterprise was to explore the Denab system following her refit. In this scene you can also see Commander Martin Madden, the new executive officer, his awkward first encounter with Picard (having, as a joke, been given laughably inaccurate advice by Riker) and a new captain's chair with something most Star Trek bridges have lacked: a seatbelt.

Technical information

In her original configuration, the Enterprise-E was 685 meters long and had 24 decks. She was equipped with twelve phaser arrays and five torpedo tubes.

The main bridge of the Enterprise

By 2379, the Enterprise-E had undergone at least one refit, including four additional phaser arrays and five additional torpedo tubes. The number of decks was also increased by five to a total of 29. (Star Trek Nemesis)

Scenes cut from the theatrical release of Star Trek Nemesis (but included in the 2003 and 2005 DVD releases) state that Commander Martin Madden took over for Riker as first officer and that Beverly Crusher left the ship to head up Starfleet Medical. Early versions of the script made reference to an Andorian ops officer. The new counselor was female, according to dialog. Novels set after Nemesis have ignored these deleted scenes and several new characters were created by the authors. Beverly Crusher returned to the Enterprise, beginning a romantic relationship with Captain Picard, eventually marrying him and as of the third book of the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy Lost Souls, she was pregnant with their first child. Worf was also promoted to commander and became the Enterprise's new first officer.

In the Countdown comic mini-series leading up to Star Trek, which was set in 2387, Picard had left the Enterprise and Starfleet, becoming Federation ambassador to Vulcan. Worf had again left Starfleet and become a general in the Klingon Defense Force and a restored Data (in the body of B-4) was now captain of the Enterprise. Geordi La Forge had also retired from Starfleet to design ships, including the Jellyfish, although it is listed as having been commissioned by the Vulcan Science Academy. Also, the storyline for Star Trek Online has Data as being brought back by the Soong Foundation and being given command of the Enterprise after Picard retired.

A ten-foot physical model constructed under the supervision of John Goodson at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) was used for some visual effects shots during Star Trek: First Contact, alongside a CGI version. By the time of Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis, a CGI version of the ship completely replaced the physical model.

For Nemesis, the CGI model received several modifications designed by John Eaves. In addition to the new weapons mentioned above, the warp pylons were slightly modified and the connection between the primary and secondary hulls near the main shuttlebay was made more sleek.

The model of the Enterprise-E from Star Trek: First Contact (Lot #107) was sold at the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction on October 5, 2006 for US$132,000 including the buyer's premium (the winning bid was US$110,000). [1]

There seems to be some confusion about the size of the Enterprise-E. The construction blueprints of the filming miniature as well as the master systems display on the bridge created for Star Trek: First Contact indicate the ship was designed with 24 decks. In the film, Picard confirms this when he tells Lily Sloane that the ship had 24 decks. Earlier on, however, Daniels had reported that the Borg are in control of Decks 26 through 11. Michael and Denise Okuda say in their text commentary on the film, during the scene in which Picard tells Lilly about the 24 decks: "Unfortunately, earlier in this film, we are told that the ship has at least 26 decks. We can't imagine that Picard doesn't know his own ship, so we theorize that the other two decks are top secret for some reason. Either that, or his memory was affected by his earlier Borg assimilation. It certainly couldn't be a goof, because the design of the ship changed slightly during filming."

In Star Trek Nemesis, the Remans beam onto Deck 29. This could mean that Picard did not tell Lily the truth and there are actually more than 24 decks, or that more decks were added to the ship prior to Star Trek Nemesis. It may also be the case that Picard was counting only finished decks, as there could have been decks left unfinished for future expansion. Also, there is the possibility that Picard may have intentionally withheld or lied about certain aspects of the Enterprise-E design in the event that Lily was assimilated by the Borg.

Also in Nemesis, the Viceroy falls several decks down a maintenance shaft. Because the Viceroy and the other Remans boarded the ship on Deck 29, it has been assumed that the ensuing battle took place on Deck 29 and that the Viceroy fell from that deck, implying that there could be 35 or more decks, or that the normal deck scheme was altered in some way that the ship could have more named decks than it measured in height.

However, this is not the case as signage on the corridors where the phaser fight between the Remans and the Enterprise officers took place indicate they were actually on Deck 9. This suggests that the two parties encountered each other about halfway to their destinations (Enterprise officers to Deck 29, the Remans to the bridge on Deck 1).

A Galaxy-class Enterprise-E

Apparently, the shooting model for the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise-D had been modified to have the registry read "USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E". The archivist at Paramount Pictures, Penny Juday, had no explanation for this change as of 19 October 2001. (TNG Season 2, Disc 6: "Inside Starfleet Archives"). The change was done at ILM by John Goodson prior to crating up the model after completion of Star Trek Generations, presumably on the presumption that the new Enterprise might be a Galaxy-class ship as well and having the number changed over already would save whoever did the special effects the trouble of having to change it over themselves. (Mark Cotta Vaz and Patricia Rose Duignan. Industrial Light and Magic, Into the digital realm. London: Virgin Publishing Ltd, 1996, page 60)

Apocrypha

Some missions of the Enterprise-E during the Dominion War are featured in Behind Enemy Lines, Tunnel Through the Stars and Tales of the Dominion War. Star Trek: A Time to..., set during the year leading up to Star Trek Nemesis, features the Enterprise being involved in a major political scandal that disgraces the ship and her crew for much of the coming year; the final duology in that series features the Enterprise being ordered to lead an invasion and occupation of a sovereign planet, with resemblance to the current real life world political situation at the time the novels were written. A "TNG relaunch" of sorts follows the Enterprise-E's activities after Nemesis; the first book in the series, Death in Winter, was released in September 2005. In the DS9 Millennium book series, the Enterprise-E was destroyed at the Battle of Rigel VII in an alternate future that the intrepid heroes of Deep Space 9 later prevented.

The novel Resistance establishes that before he left the Enterprise for the Titan, Commander Riker christened this Enterprise's version of the crew lounge, or Ten Forward, as the "Happy Bottom Riding Club," a name Worf absolutely hates and refuses to use under any circumstances. The name for the lounge was derived from a similar watering hole that old Earthastronauts used to frequent. It also establishes that every ship's computer that was built during the last decade has encrypted information about Romulan cloaking technology, which can be decrypted in case of emergency using an admiral's code and thus enabling the crew to build a cloaking device. In Resistance the crew separates the saucer section from the engine section (a feat the Enterprise-E previously has been unable to do) and then cloaks the engine section to engage a Borg cube.

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